"International Citizenship: Appreciating Self and Others in a Multicultural World" is the subject of the Ida Wise East Memorial Lecture by Dr. Robert Eldridge '90 at 7:30 p.m. March 26 in Hopwood Hall Auditorium. This "Year of the Citizen" event is free and open to the public.
The need for interaction beyond borders and cultures is only increasing due to globalization - the rapid spread of ideas, flow of people, and sharing of technology, goods, and services.
"We need to not only ‘tolerate' others, but learn about and appreciate them as well," Eldridge said. "In understanding and respecting other countries and cultures, we also come to value ourselves and play a more responsible and interactive role in the global community."
Eldridge, who has lived outside the U.S. for two decades, is an associate professor of Japanese political and diplomatic history at Osaka University's Graduate School of International Public Policy in Osaka, Japan, and acting director of the university's Center for International Security Studies and Policy. He is also as head of the U.S.-Japan Alliance Affairs Division of the same center.
Eldridge earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science at the Graduate School of Law, Kobe University, in 1996 and 1999 respectively, and his B.A. in international relations, cum laude with high departmental honors, in 1990 from Lynchburg College.
He serves on the advisory boards of several professional and academic associations including the Asiatic Society of Japan (Tokyo), Pacific War Memorial Association (Honolulu), and Okinawa Peace Assistance Center (Naha).
He is an award-winning author of numerous works including the co-edited book Public Opinion in Japan and the War on Terrorism(Palgrave-Macmillan, 2008), a translation of the memoirs of the late prime minister Miyazawa Kiichi entitled Secret Talks between Tokyo and Washington(Lexington Books, 2007) and of Iokibe Makoto's edited Sengo Nihon Gaikoshi or The Diplomatic History of Postwar Japan(Routledge, 2009 forthcoming).
From 2004 to 2005, Eldridge served as scholar-in-residence at the headquarters of U.S. Marine Corps Forces Pacific at Camp Smith, in Hawaii, and as visiting scholar at the Command and Staff College extension program in Okinawa.
Currently, he serves as an adviser to Middle Army Headquarters of the Japanese Ground Self-Defense Forces and has consulted for the Japanese Upper House Okinawa Affairs Committee, as well as media outlets in Japan.
Eldridge is working on a sequel to his first book on Okinawa to be titled, The Road to Reversion: Okinawa in Postwar U.S.-Japan Relations, 1952-1972.